Partial ligament tear - scapholunate area

Sorry to hear about your wrist injury saga! I’ve been climbing (still with leukotape) harder than preinjury and I swear exercising it instead of letting it atrophy has reduced my arthritis almost completely. I’d definitely be skeptical of that surgeon! Sorry also to hear about the insurance conundrum. I have US insurance and it covered a second opinion and loads of PT. 

Hey Andrew, I just re-read your posts from some years ago, and seems like you've been through a lot: from injury/SL tear, to immobilizing and PT to get back to a pretty good state for climbing and doing other stuff with your hand, incredible and inspiring to read!
Small update: I saw an Osteopath who after playing for 5 minutes with my wrist and giving me some stretches, it feels more relaxed and a few days with no pain at all. So plan is to avoid any surgery for now and try to figure out a good PT routine.

It also sounds like you found a great 'climbing' PT, would you be able to share their info with me, or otherwise do you just suggest googling to find other good ones?
I'll be on the road a bit in EU the next 2-3 months so hoping to start off with a couple virtual sessions, and then if need to be physically present I'd go wherever to give it a try.

I was diagnosed with a partial SLL year about 6 months ago. There was no acute trauma that I can remember; it just started getting painful during full flexion. I had previously broken my wrists 

and have deformities in both as a result. It sounds like the SLL tear was always there but had gotten much worse for whatever reason.

I tried 6 weeks of bracing where I was only using my wrist to type for work. It seemed to get better for a little bit but then took a dive in terms of pain. After seeing another two surgeons the consensus is that I have more like a 90% tear of the SLL and also a fully torn TFCC that I have just been living with. 

I’ve decided to go forward with surgery to correct the deformity that is causing extra pressure on my SLL and to repair the TFCC. The surgeon is hopeful that it will be a number of years before I need a wrist fusion.

Would love to hear more stories of how people are fairing! I’ll try to keep this thread updated with information as I go through the process! 

Had both repaired (using existing tissue, no graft) close to 5 years ago, climbing harder than before. Range of motion isn't as good as before but feels strong on all but the most rounded slopers

Ness Erskinewrote:

Hi

I have a completely torn ligament, the same as your injury and deciding what course of action to take wondering how you are at the moment, and how it has it progressed??

 I would be so grateful for your advice 

It’s been 3.5 years since my complete rupture of the scapholunate ligament (did loads of PT instead of surgery) and I’m still climbing harder than before, no noticeable arthritis advancement yet. Limited ROM, hurts to use a chainsaw all day, but other than limiting blue collar activities it’s strong and functional. I do have to tape it like a tape glove with leukotape every time I climb, just to be careful, but I can live with that. 

Tom Addisonwrote:

Interesting thread. Here's a quick version of my story which might be helpful to some.  About 4 years ago I suffered a partial SLL tear, and then maybe 6 months later a complete SLL tear.  I saw 4 different hand surgeons, who told me that essentially climbing or hard climbing was over.  Several were keen to operate.  I researched the plethora of surgical repair options, which frankly tend to have not-so-great outcomes. Some kind folks on MP shared their experiences with me.  I spent a lot of time on PubMed, and talking with surgeons, hand therapists, and others.  After much work in PT to try to rehab the wrist, and not great outcomes, I found a surgeon in San Francisco who had just come up with a new alternative surgical repair.  I met with her, and was one of her very earlier surgeries.  Essentially, it mimics ACL repair, but done in the wrist with smaller cannulated screws.  I've now got 2 pieces of cadaver tendon going from the scaphoid, to the lunate and the triquetrum.  Much PT followed surgery.

The wrist is stable, painfree, and I have almost complete range of motion.  I'm training, hangboarding, campusing, and climbing a lot.  I'm back to where I was pre-injury I'd say in terms of climbing performance (occasionally flashing 12d and redpointing to 13+, and falling off easy boulder problems). So I'm certainly stressing my wrist on a regular basis, and have been back going hard for about 2 years now. YMMV, but I think her surgery (which is still quite new) is definitely a better option than what was previously available.  I'm happy to share the surgeon's contact info if you send me a message, or a poster she put together at an early stage where she had done some cadaver tests with her surgery vs. other more common options.  I think quite a few handsurgeons are now using her technique, but I'm definitely not up on that.  SLAC is out of the picture, and I don't feel limited ever by my wrist.  Before the surgery, I really thought I was done with climbing, which was quite a bummer.  Now I've got my life back.

I would really appreciate this surgeon’s contact information. My email is msilver1991@gmail.com. Thanks so much. 

Max: I sent you an email

Following